Introduction

Solstice DiskSuite 4.2.1 is a software product that enables you to manage large numbers of disks and the data on those disks.

Although there are many ways to use DiskSuite, most tasks center around increasing:

• Storage capacity

• Data availability

DiskSuite uses virtual disks to manage physical disks and their associated data. In DiskSuite, a virtual disk is called a metadevice. A metadevice is functionally identical to a physical disk in the view of an application. DiskSuite converts I/O requests directed at a metadevice into I/O requests to the underlying member disks.

DiskSuite's metadevices are built from slices (disk partitions). An easy way to build metadevices is to use the graphical user interface, DiskSuite Tool, that comes with DiskSuite. DiskSuite Tool presents you with a view of all the slices available to you. By dragging slices onto metadevice objects, you can quickly assign slices to metadevices.

If, for example, you want to create more storage capacity, you could use DiskSuite to "fool" the system into thinking that a collection of many small slices is one physical disk. After you have created a metadevice from these slices, you can immediately begin using it just as any "real" disk.

DiskSuite can also increase the availability of data by using mirrors and RAID5 metadevices. Mirrors and RAID5 metadevices replicate data so that it is not destroyed if the disk on which it is stored fails.

For a more detailed discussion of metadevices, and for more information on all of DiskSuite's tools, refer to Solstice DiskSuite 4.2.1 Reference Guide.